STRONG FORCES

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21733, 16 March 1936, Page 11

STRONG FORCES

GERMAN ARMY IN RHINELAND ESTIMATE OF MORE THAN 200,000 MEN (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION— COPYRIGHT,) (Received March 15, 8 p.m.) LONDON, March 14. The diplomatic correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph” says: "I am assured that were the British Government to decide that it would not stand by France and Belgium, the Cabinet would split from top to bottom- The Ministers are further influenced by a more accurate estimate of the German forces in the Rhineland, which was available yesterday from reliable sources. “Thirty thousand men of the regular army marched into the Rhineland last week-end. To this number must be added 30,000 men of the Labour Corps, who are trained for military work, and who, it is reported, are being armed and incorporated in the regulars. There are also in the Rhineland 150,000 storm troopers in semi-military formation, between 8000 and 10,000 members of the Austrian legion, and a number of motor-car units. “Faced with this force, France is arguing that she may be compelled to mobilise a number of units on the frontier, and is also pressing Belgium and Great Britain to join her in a new Locarno pact of mutual assistance, with immediate staff consultations.”

OFFICIAL FIGURES

EMBASSY STATEMENT

(Received March 15, 8 p.m.) LONDON, March 14.

The German Embassy states that the military forces in the Rhineland, including organised police, number only 36,500, with no armoured fighting units and no bombinj aeroplanes. The Embassy contends that since the Rhineland is one-eighth of the area of Germany, and contains one-fifth of her people, such co-operation cannot be regarded as otherwise than symbolic.

FRENCH DEFENCES

REPELLING LAND AND AIR

ATTACKS

LONDON, March 13

The Sun-Herald News Service says that scores of thousands of French troops have completed the manning of the Maginot line, which, with “turrets of death” and a chain of underground fortifications in steel and concrete, constitutes the strongest defences in history. They cost nearly £100,000,000. The Metz correspondent of the “Daily Mail” reports that' the French are carrying out military exercises based on plans covering the month in which the full resources of the defences will be tested. * A network of communications keeps the batteries informed of the movements of oncoming aeroplanes. Military experts are convinced that the line is at present impregnable and cannot be crossed - either by land or air.